The Hastings Hawks are back to .500 on the season at 12-12 after a busy week of baseball at Veterans Park. Hastings has played all of their July games so far at home and currently has one game on the schedule as an away game, that is the last regular season game on July 23rd at Miesville. Hampton has yet to find a suitable make-up day for the game they are supposed to host. Of the four games the Hawks played, they went 2-2 on the week dropping the July 12 game to Northfield 13-6 then they defeated the nine-time state champion Cold Spring Springers 7-6 on July 14. On July 15, Hampton came to town for the first make-up game between the two teams and Hastings won 10-4. July 17 is yet another makeup game due to weather, this time it is the game that was scheduled for Mother’s Day, home against the Dundas Dukes. Hastings fell 7-4.

Against Northfield, a Classic Cannon Valley League (CCVL) Class B opponent, things started rough. The Knights scored four in the top of the first trying to assert their dominance, but Hastings never gave up chipping back to be within one after the second inning then taking the lead 5-4 in the third inning before Northfield tied it at five in the top of the fourth.

Both teams were held scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings and Northfield took the lead for good in the top of the seventh, scoring two. Hastings cut the lead in half in the bottom of the seventh to make it 7-6. A pitching change in the eighth to the normally reliable Ben Teigland resulted in a frustrated Hawks team. Not because Teigland pitched poorly, it was the exact opposite, he pitched really well. The issue was that the home plate umpires strike zone changed dramatically. It went from the size of a freezer door to the size of an iPad mini.

Umpires are human, they are very important to the game, and they deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt given the difficulty of the position, but this dramatic change was bizarre and a very major change that affected the outcome of the game.

The normally accurate Teigland tossed 35 pitches in one inning, 21 balls and 14 strikes, and it was not a case of him missing a normal strike zone. His previous outing, he threw 38 pitches, 16 balls and 22 strikes and against Cold Spring just two days after Northfield he tossed 99 pitches, 49 balls and 50 strikes.

Even the Hawks broadcasters were a bit taken aback by the change. Team broadcasters naturally have a bias to their own team but the CCVL representatives for the teams also do a great job admitting when something is not right even if it benefits their team. Often you hear ‘we got away with that one even though it should have been called the other way, we’ll take it’ type comments. This time, the play-by-play guys were in unison in regard to the squeezing of the zone. Hastings ultimately fell 13-6.

Offensive positives for Hastings, Cory Wolters and Jackson Tessman continued hitting the ball well going two for five at the plate. Jason Greeder had two RBIs, Jake Sandquist, Ben Teigland and Evan Krhin each had one RBI.

Friday night, Cold Spring made the more than two-hour drive down from the St. Cloud area to play at Vets. The weather was great all day, but an early evening rainstorm made things interesting for the Hawks grounds crew and the players. Luckily, the game was scheduled for an 8:00 p.m. start and those involved with working on the field are very adept at quickly fixing the field. The game started about 10 minutes late.

“We were determined to get this game in,” said Hawks Manager Shawn Matson. “Those guys left around four to get here by six to warm up and the storm hit around quarter after five until almost seven. We had the field fixed in just over an hour.”

The field was more than playable, it was very close to normal conditions thanks to the work all season by the volunteers that take care of it and the pre-season work put in by Minnesota Sod Company when they laser leveled the dirt and cleaned up the edges.

Hastings jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, thanks to a Jodan Jeske single, two errors on the Spingers and a single by Tessman.

Cold Spring tied the game in the third, but Hastings responded in the bottom of the frame to regain the lead 3-2 when Hawks rookie Jack Seleskie scored after being hit by the pitch.

Hastings extended their lead adding one in the fourth and one in the fifth to go up 5-2, but Cold Spring was not done. The Springers had a four-run top of the sixth thanks to one Hawks error to take their only lead in the game, 6-5. The boys did a great job picking up their teammate after the error in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two runs to retake the lead 7-6. That is where the game ended.

Teigland was the pitcher of the record, going six innings for the win allowing four earned runs while striking out one. Evan Krhin had a nice relief appearance striking out three of the 11 batters he faced and allowing no runs. Wolters earned the save striking out both batters he faced in the ninth.

At the plate, Jeske was 2-for-2 with a walk, scoring each time he made it on the bases. Two other Hawks rookies, Mitch Iliff and Jack Nelson each went 3-for-4 with three singles, one RBI and two runs scored for identical stat lines and Noah Paulseth was just one hit behind Iliff and Nelson going 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI.

Saturday afternoon was the ‘finally’ game. Finally, the two teams, Hastings and Hampton, were able to agree on a game date and get the game in. Hampton is another CCVL Class B opponent for the Hawks and the games between the two have a little more meaning.

Wayne Erickson is a former Hawk and Cardinal. Erickson was involved heavily at the state level, and he was a part of both teams as a manager and board member. Erickson passed away almost two seasons ago and at the start of the first season after his passing, the two teams agreed to keep a travelling trophy in Wayne’s honor. Wayne was a good person and friend and even better mentor to many people in the league, including me. Winning this game is more than just bragging rights.

The Hawks again jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first. Jackson Schaffer started the offense with a single to right, but he was thrown out on a fielder’s choice when Iliff hit a grounder to second and the Cardinals were unable to convert the double play. That is when the Northwoods League bound Blake Warner crushed a no doubter of a home run over the right field fence on the first pitch. (See the article on the Northwoods League opportunity for Warner on page 9)

Despite the monstrous home run in the first being a very cool way to take the lead, the second inning was even more productive for the Hawks. First, every Hawk had an at bat in the second inning, with five runs scored. Krhin led off with a double, Greeder hit a single scoring Krhin. Nelson hit a single moving Greeder to third, Schaffer hit a single scoring Greeder and moving Nelson to second. Ihliff walked loading the bases and Warner hit a sacrifice fly scoring Nelson. Tessman hit a double off the wall in left scoring Schaffer and Paulseth scored Iliff on a routine ground out to second. The Hawks now had a 7-0 lead, a lead they held onto until the sixth when Hampton scored their first run.

Hastings answered the Cardinals one by putting up three more in the bottom of the seventh. Warner, Tessman and Paulseth all scored. Warner was driven in by Krhin and Jason Greeder crushed a double down the left field line scoring the other two. Unfortunately, Greeder tried to stretch his hit into a triple, and he was thrown out ending the Hawks chance of a ten-run-rule win in the bottom of the seventh.

Hampton added three more in the top of the eighth, but it was not enough, and the Hawks won 10-4, bringing home the Wayne Erickson Memorial Trophy and logging another league win.

The final game of the news week was Monday night against the Dundas Dukes, a makeup of the Mother’s Day game that was postponed due to rain. The original game had a fun little promotion, a free flower for the first 15 moms to get one from concessions, since the game was postponed, the Hawks honored that promotion and celebrated moms at this game.

Hastings took the lead in the first inning going up 1-0 when Wolters led off with a double and Jackson Schaffer followed Wolters with a double of his own. Hastings then scored again in the third and fourth innings producing one run in each to go up 3-0. A fourth run crossed home plate in the eighth and it looked as though the Hawks were going to cruise to a win.

That all changed in the top of the ninth. Starting pitcher Dennis Reinhart pitched a four-hit shutout over eight innings and Hawks brought in Wolters to close out the game. Wolters struck out the leadoff batter but then struggled to hit the strike zone walking five straight batters and the score was 4-2 Hastings. Brendan Krueger relieved Wolters with the bases loaded and one out. Krueger managed to get the second out on the first batter he faced, a ground out to first, but another run had scored, and it was 4-3 Hastings. The Dukes then hit a double to left scoring two more, 5-4 Dundas, then a single scored one more to extend the Dundas lead, 6-4 Dundas. Krueger walked the next batter then hit the following batter to load the bases again. A final walk scored one more run to give the Dukes a 7-4 lead before the final out of the top of the ninth was in the books. In all, Dundas scored seven runs on two hits in the ninth.

Hastings went down 1, 2, 3 in the bottom of the ninth and a masterful game pitched by Reinhart ended up as a loss.

Reinhart pitched well enough to garner a number of ground outs, allowing only four hits while striking out four and walking three.

The loss put the Hawks back at .500 for the season at 12-12 with the final week of regular season games coming up. July 19, the Burnsville Bobcats come to town for a 7:30 p.m. game, then the biggest game of the season is July 21 against the Cannon Falls Bears. The winner of that game will claim second place in the CCVL Class C standings and host a home playoff game the next week against the same team. Sunday is the final regular season game at Miesville at 2:00 p.m.

The playoff game will be Tuesday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m. If the Hawks win Friday, they will host Cannon Falls again. If the Bears win Friday, then Tuesday will be in Cannon Falls at John Burch Field.